Pajaro River Bench Excavation Project

Pajaro River Bench Excavation Project

The project proposes to excavate excess sediment from select locations along the upper terrace benches inside the Pajaro River levees in order to improve the flood carrying capacity of the levee system. The proposed project would create a two-year floodplain to re-establish flow levels at bankfull capacity. The proposed bench excavation project is also specifically designed to relieve the magnitude and severity of potential flooding caused by failure of the Pajaro River levees. Modeling results have determined that a volume up to 336,000 cubic yards could be excavated from eleven locations along 7.5 miles of the levee benches between Highway 1 and Murphy Road Crossing. The excavation sites span 39.1 acres and include nine excavation sites within Santa Cruz County, and two sites within Monterey County.

Watsonville

Monterey, Santa Cruz

California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Bay Delta Region 3 (CDFW), California Department of Parks and Recreation, California Department of State Parks, Division of Boating and Waterways, California Department of Transportation, District 5 (DOT), California Highway Patrol, California Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC), California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Coast Region 3 (RWQCB), California State Lands Commission (SLC), Caltrans, Division of Aeronautics, Central Valley Flood Protection Board, Department of Water Resources, Resources Agency, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Central Region 4 (CDFW)

California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Central Region 4 (CDFW)

Other (No development proposed)

Land Clearing

Aesthetics, Agriculture and Forestry Resources, Air Quality, Biological Resources, Cultural Resources, Drainage/Absorption, Flood Plain/Flooding, Geology/Soils, Hazards & Hazardous Materials, Hydrology/Water Quality, Noise, Transportation, Vegetation, Wetland/Riparian, Wildlife, GHG